O crescimento da Internet ao longo dos últimos anos como canal de vendas e canal de relacionamento entre as empresas e seus consumidores acabou por torná-la uma das principais apostas das grandes redes de varejo para a expansão dos negócios e aumento de sua performance operacional. Dentro deste contexto, o objetivo desta dissertação é contribuir à formação do conhecimento na área pesquisando o comportamento do comprador online brasileiro, especificamente alguns dos elementos motivadores e inibidores de compra, além de outros aspectos relacionados à frequência de compra, satisfação com o meio e indicadores demográficos. Para cumprir tais objetivos, foi realizada uma revisão bibliográfica passando pela literatura acerca de comportamento do consumidor e de estudos empíricos voltados especificamente à área de Internet. Complementarmente, foi conduzida uma pesquisa de campo quantitativa com 238 usuários de Internet brasileiros, visando contrapor os resultados às referências teóricas pesquisadas. Os resultados do estudo apontam a existência de diferentes níveis de importância entre os elementos determinantes do meio de compra (a destacar os fatores de preço e facilidade de acesso), além de identificar relações significativas positivas entre a intensidade de uso da Internet e a quantidade de compras realizadas online; e também entre a satisfação com as compras online e a intenção de realização de compras futuras pelo meio. / The growth of the Internet over the last years as a sales channel and as a relationship channel between companies and its costumers has ultimately made it one of the main bets of the largest retail chains for achieving business growth and for increasing their operating performance. In this context, the objective of this dissertation is to provide a contribution to the knowledge development in the area by researching the buyers behavior in Brasil, specifically some of the motivators and inhibitors elements of the online purchase, along with its correlation to other related aspects, such as purchase frequency, medium satisfaction on purchase, and key demographics of the online buyer. In order to reach these goals, a literature review has been conducted over consumer behavior references as well as empiric studies more specifically oriented to the dissertation discussion area. A quantitative field research has also been conducted with 238 Brazilian Internet users, with the main purpose of comparing the survey results to the literature review findings. The study results indicate the existence of different importance levels among the determing elements of the purchase mean (to be highlighted the importance of the price and easy access factors), besides pointing out positive and significative correlations between the intensity of Internet usage and purchase behavior; and between online purchases satisfaction and future purchase intention.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to examine households attitudes and commitment to demand side flexibility as well as the various actors perceptions of the division of responsibilities in the electricity market and the information available to households. Research questions:                   – What are the main factors for private electricity customers to be able to contribute with demand side flexibility to the electricity system? – What challenges and opportunities can be identified with increased demand side flexibility? Method: The study was based on an abductive approach, where the collection of primary data is of a quantitative and qualitative nature. The qualitative part was collected through 9 semi-structured interviews with actors linked to the electricity market. Collection of quantitative data was done through a survey aimed at households with a total of 110 respondents. The results of the data collection have been analyzed thematically together with the theoretical framework. Conclusions: The main factors for increased demand flexibility are, firstly, a clear division of responsibilities between authorities, households and other players in the electricity market. Secondly, well-developed information channels are required that can be made possible through new technology. Finally, an electricity market is required that allows new actors such as an aggregator. The challenges include engaging households, currently low profitability for demand side flexibility and a set of regulations and tariffs that are lagging behind in development. The opportunities are future changes in the electricity price that speak in favor of increased profitability for demand side flexibility and a change to more dynamic and flexible electricity network tariffs.

Das Smartphone ist mittlerweile ein ständiger Begleiter in unserer Gesellschaft geworden. Die Nutzer fühlen sich jedoch zunehmend belästigt von zu vielen Angeboten, Informationen und Hinweisen, die sie täglich erreichen. Eine Bedarfsanpassung in Form von Personalisierung und Kontextbezug nimmt dementsprechend bei mobilen Diensten eine immer wichtigere Rolle ein. Kontextorientierung bildet heutzutage einen Schwerpunkt im Ubiquitous Computing und geht einher mit der extensiven Nutzung von Sensordaten.

As private labels have developed and increased in recent years, customers’ options have grown. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how customers reason when they choose a brand in a Swedish sportswear store, which offers both private labels and national brands. More specifically, the following attributes, private labels versus national brands, customer behavior, and store layout are considered in order to address a possible complexity in the brand choice. The empirical material was collected through twelve exit interviews outside Stadium stores in four cities, combined with four observations in four Stadium stores. The findings revealed that private labels and national brands seem to have similar product characteristics, which may cause complexity in customers’ brand choices. This thesis contributes with an insight into a new dynamic within the walls of a sportswear store and discusses what aspects influence customers’ brand choice.

During recent years, digitalization has had an increasing impact in the society. It has gone frombeing an isolated part of an organization into something that can instead transform the business as awhole. Many businesses have experienced this change, and traditional retail banks are no exception.The digital climate has enabled new digital operators to enter the financial market and these havemanaged to claim market space. At the same time, a new, less loyal and more digital generation ofcustomers, i.e. Generation Y, will have an increasingly important role on the market. However, it iscurrently not well known how traditional Swedish retail banks should manage this, and whatimplications the behavior of Generation Y will have on the banking industry.The purpose of this study was to provide insights and implications for traditional Swedish retailbanks on how Generation Y’s banking behavior can affect their future business, in an increasinglydigital environment. The behavior of Generation Y and how banks address their needs, anddigitalization as a whole, were investigated separately. The findings were then compared in order toprovide insights into where gaps between the banks and Generation Y could be found. Toinvestigate Generation Y’s behavior, a qualitative questionnaire was distributed and thenquantitatively analyzed. Furthermore, in order to investigate how the traditional banks addressGeneration Y’s needs, qualitative interviews were conducted with representatives from the four largeSwedish retail banks. By comparing the findings, the purpose of the study could be addressed.Through comprehensive data collection, gaps could be identified. The most important gaps werefound in the areas of financial advisory and aggregation of services. Customers did not perceivethese areas as important when choosing a particular financial service provider, whereas the banksconsidered these as competitive advantages in relation to other competitors. These findings providevaluable insights for traditional retail banks in particular, and for the financial market as a whole,since they provide implications on the sustainability of the operators’ strategy. Moreover, this studycomplements the digital customer behavior literature connected to virtual distribution channels andthe retail banking industry as a whole. One main finding was that Generation Y’s, otherwise trendseeking behavior is limited in the banking industry, and instead, habituation and security concernsare far more important. Therefore the findings suggest that Generation Y’s behavior might be moreconservative in the banking industry than in general.

E-handel har varit en snabbt växande sektor de senaste åren och förväntas fortsätta växa i samma takt under de närmsta. Detta har öppnat upp nya möjligheter för företag som försöker sälja sina produkter och tjänster, men det tvingar dem även att utnyttja dessa möjligheter för att vara konkurrenskraftiga. En intressant möjlighet som vi har valt att fokusera detta arbete på är förmågan att använda kunddata, som inte varit tillgänglig i fysiska butiker, till att identifiera mönster i kundbeteenden. Förhoppningsvis ger detta en ökad förståelse för kunderna och gör det möjligt att förutspå framtida beteenden. Vi fokuserade specifikt på att skilja mellan potentiella köpare och faktiska köpare, med avsikt att identifiera nyckelfaktorer som avgör ifall en kund genomför ett köp eller ej. Detta gjorde vi genom att använda Binary Logistic Regression, en algoritm som använder övervakad maskininlärning för att klassificera en observation mellan två klasser. Vi lyckades ta fram en modell som förutsåg om en kund skulle genomföra ett köp eller ej med en noggrannhet på 88%. / E-commerce has been a rapidly growing sector during the last years, and are predicted to continue to grow as fast during the next ones. This has opened up a lot of opportunities for companies trying to sell their products or services, but it is also forcing them to exploit these opportunities before their competitors in order to not fall behind. One interesting opportunity we have chosen to focus this thesis on is the ability to use customer data, that has not been available with physical stores, to identify customer behaviour patterns and develop a better understanding for the customers. Hopefully this makes it possible to predict customer behaviour. We specifically focused on distinguishing possible-buyers from buyers, with the intent of identifying key factors that affect whether the customer performs a purchase or not. We did this using Binary Logistic Regression, a supervised machine learning algorithm that is trained to classify an input observation. We managed to create a model that predicted whether or not a customer was a possible-buyer or buyer with an accuracy of 88%.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:19:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2007- Jose Aurelio Vilas Boas.pdf: 391843 bytes, checksum: 398e95d547ae787e3a8a39b67fcc2895 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-08-28 / The general aim of this dissertation is to investigate customers behavior as regards to choosing packages at the moment of purchase. Customer s behavior is characterized as a process; a set of stages which involves selection, purchase, use or products layout, ideas or experiments to satisfy needs and wishes. This study, by means of a bibliographical research as well as a survey, which was carried through with A, B and C supermarkets customers, located at Volta Redonda (RJ), provides us a view of how the process of choosing packages occurs at the moment of purchase. The study pointed out that customers behave rationally, trying to shop as better as possible, obtaining the best from their money, and maximizing utility, what appears to be an evidence of no emotional involvement when choosing tomatomade products packages. / O objetivo geral desta disserta??o consiste em investigar o comportamento dos consumidores em rela??o ? escolha da embalagem no ato da compra. O comportamento do consumidor se caracteriza como processo: um conjunto de est?gios que envolvem a sele??o, a compra, o uso ou a disposi??o de produtos, id?ias ou experi?ncias para satisfazer necessidades e desejos. O presente estudo, atrav?s de pesquisa bibliogr?fica e uma pesquisa de campo (survey) realizada com consumidores dos supermercados A, B e C situados na cidade de Volta Redonda/RJ, a pesquisa fornece uma vis?o de como ocorre o processo de escolha da embalagem no ato de compra. O estudo apontou que o comportamento dos consumidores ocorre sob uma perspectiva racional, procurando fazer compras da melhor maneira poss?vel, obtendo o melhor pelo dinheiro e maximizando a utilidade, parecendo n?o haver envolvimento emocional na escolha da embalagem da classe de produtos atomatados.

Legislation has been proposed in Kentucky that would authorize city legislative bodies to levy a tax on restaurant meals of no more than 3%, regardless of the size of the city. The bill has garnered attention from Kentucky Travel Industry Association, the Kentucky Restaurant Association, and local tourism and restaurant organizations and associations that oppose the tax. The Kentucky League of Cities, an organization that represents the interests of city governments, supports the tax. The purpose of this research was to examine how a change in the tax rate on restaurant meals would affect restaurant demand. Effects of changes in restaurant demand were tested using the following independent variables: type of restaurant, menu offering, frequency, expense, and location. Self-administered online surveys were distributed to adult residents in Kentucky, which yielded a sample size of 1,263 individuals. Paired sample t test was applied to make comparison between scenario 1 (current) and scenario 2 (3%) and scenario 1 (current) and scenario 3 (JND). Findings showed that demand patterns in each class of city would be affected by increases in taxes and prices.

Forskningsfrågor På vilka sätt visar företag inom detaljhandeln tillit eller brist på tillit till sina kunder i servicelandskap? På vilka sätt upplever kunder att företags visade tillit eller brist på tillit i servicelandskap påverkar deras relationer med företagen? Syfte Syftet med uppsatsen är att ge en ökad förståelse för hur kunders relationer med företag inom detaljhandeln påverkas av om företag visar tillit eller brist på tillit i servicelandskap. Det kommer att uppnås genom att analysera servicelandskaps utformning samt kunders upplevelser av hur företag visar eller inte visar förtroende för sina kunder i servicelandskap. Metod Uppsatsen utgår från en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod och präglas av en abduktiv ansats. Eftersom syftet berör de tre huvudbegreppen servicelandskap, tillit och relationer har respektive begrepp behandlats under enskilda kapitel. I varje kapitel som behandlar respektive begrepp presenteras teori och en analys av empirin som har samlats in med stöd av fokusgrupper samt semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Slutsats Företag inom detaljhandeln visar brist på tillit till sina kunder i servicelandskapen främst genom inlåsta varor, övervakningskameror samt att låta personalen övervaka kunderna. Personalens brist på tillit är det som påverkar kunderna mest och huruvida kunderna påverkas av inlåsta varor beror på syftet med deras köp. Att ge kunder frihet och kontroll i servicelandskap är ett sätt för företag att visa tillit till sina kunder. Kunders relationer till företag påverkas i sin tur av i vilken grad kunderna påverkas av den tillit som företag visar eller inte visar i servicelandskapen. / Research questions In what ways do companies within retailing show trust or lack of trust to their customers in servicescapes? In what ways do customers perceive that companies trust or lack of trust in servicescapes affects their relationships with the companies? Aim The aim of this study is to give an increased understanding of how customers' relationships with companies in the retail sector are affected by whether companies show trust or lack of trust in the servicescape. This will be achieved by analyzing servicescapes design as well as customers experiences of how companies show or do not show trust to their customers in the servicescape. Method This study is based on a qualitative research method and is characterized by an abductive process. Since the aim involves the three main concepts servicescape, trust and relationships, each concept has been covered in individual chapters. In each chapter dealing with each concept theory and the analysis of the empirical data that has been collected through focus groups and semi-structured interviews is presented. Conclusion Companies within retailing show a lack of trust to their customers in the servicescapes mainly through locked goods, surveillance cameras as well as having the staff monitor the customers. The staff's lack of trust is what affects customers the most and whether the customers are affected by locked goods depends on the purpose of their purchase. To give customers freedom and control in servicescapes is a way for companies to show trust to their customers. Customers' relationships with companies are in turn influenced by the degree to which the customers are affected by the trust companies show or do not show in the servicescape.

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to present to the reader a comprehensive overview on how the characteristics of grocery products and apparel products influence the customer behavior and the choice of an offline or an online sales channel within an omnichannel marketing strategy. This thesis takes a company’s point of view in order to investigate the reactions and the resulting marketing and channel strategies the different retailers apply while taking into account the varying customer behavior. In order to fulfill this purpose, we formulated and presented two research questions and three propositions that helped to investigate the chosen subject matter of this thesis. The research philosophy of this Master’s thesis is based on an interpretivist epistemological perspective and a subjectivist ontological view. The research conducted within this thesis has an exploratory nature. In addition, the deductive approach is used to study the research questions, while adopting a qualitative research method. The practical method employed in this thesis in order to fulfill the purpose is based on conducting multiple semi-structured, non-standardized interviews. The respondents and the companies they represent are divided according to the industry they belong to, namely the apparel retail or the grocery retail, and the geographically located in Europe. The final results are then gained by the combination of the primary data, yield from the interviews, and secondary data, collected during a literature search and an undertaken literature review. The contribution of this Master’s thesis is represented by an analysis that combines the theoretical perspectives and empirical findings. They provide an overview on how do the characteristics of products influence the customer behavior and the choice of an offline or an online sales channel within an omnichannel marketing strategy while focusing on apparel and grocery retailers in Europe. In addition, the findings also provide an overview on how the apparel and grocery retailers react on the varying behavior of their customers and based on this, what marketing and sales strategies they employ.